CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

From there on out, Quidditch became a sort of second nature to Jane. The practices were way more intense now that she was on first line, and she put everything she had into her practices. Remus even started to tease her for being too much like James when it came to Quidditch.

Remus had gotten sick twice already before the end of October was near. Jane didn't really think anything about it; it was a usual occurrence by now. Remus just seemed to always be sick. The others, however, seemed to think that Remus was hiding some sort of enormous secret from them. When they tried to convince Jane of this, she simply waved them off. She had told them that she wanted nothing to do with their "conspiracy theory," as she had called it.

Finally, they stopped mentioning it to her. The way Jane saw it was this: even if Remus was keeping some big secret from them, which she very highly doubted he was, it was probably for a good reason; it wasn't their job to find it out. Jane wouldn't have liked it if they had went snooping behind her back and found out about her mum. Sometimes people deserved to have their secrets; they deserved privacy.

The last Sunday in October marked their very first (school permitted) Hogsmeade trip. While all the other third years were buzzing around the little village with excitement, the five friends just walked around and talked to each other. The excitement of the village had worn off on them by now, seeing as how they could come and go anytime they desired. However, Jane's love for Hogsmeade still remained strong.

The friends bought Butterbeers to warm themselves up as they walked around in the chilly October weather. They walked and walked and walked until they made it to the outskirts of the village. In the distance, they could see the lone Shrieking Shack.

Jane, whose fear of the shack still remained despite her new-found attitude, was happy with keeping their distance from it, but she had never been one graced with good luck. They kept walking closer and closer towards it. Jane had to keep telling herself that they were only walking; it wasn't like they were walking to the shack. They were walking without destination and happened to be headed in the same direction that the shack was in was all it was. It wasn't like they were stupid enough to get too close to it.

Unfortunately, Jane didn't account for the one major flaw of their little group: Sirius. Jane didn't know what compelled him to think up the things he did. Sometimes, she was fully convinced that Sirius had been put on the earth to torture her specifically. Somewhere in his DNA, Sirius had a gene that was designed with the sole purpose to clash with Jane in any way that it could; and it did a very good job at it.

"I wonder what's really in that shack," Sirius had said.

And that was it. That was all it took for James and Sirius to lead the way right to the shack. Remus and Jane protested the entire way. Peter just trembled out of fear.

With the house in clear view, about one hundred yards away, Jane decided that she wasn't going any further.

"Come on, Jane. We're just going to have a little look around. It'll be fun," James said.

"No," she stated.

"What? Are you scared?" Sirius teased.

"Of the most haunted building in Britain? Maybe a little," Jane admitted; she didn't care how badly she got teased for this one; she wasn't going near that shack.

"Oh, come on—"

"No," Jane said again, crossing her arms. "Did you know that not even the Hogwarts ghosts will go in there? Sir Nicholas told me."

"Ghosts are cowards, Janie," Sirius said. "That's why they're ghosts. They were too afraid of death."

"Jane's right, guys," Remus butted in. "It's probably private property anyway. We could end up in a ton of trouble. Besides, there's probably nothing to really see."

"Well, you pansies can stay here, but James and I are going to check it out," Sirius said.

"Fine," Jane said, sitting herself on the ground.

"Fine," Sirius said before walking away with James.

Peter sat anxiously on the ground beside Jane while Remus just stood, looking as though he were making sure no one would walk up on them. After a few long minutes, Remus looked at the shack.

"I wish they would hurry it up," he said.

"I know; it's making me nervous. I mean, what if something gets them?" Jane said.

Remus nearly rolled his eyes.

"Nothing's going to 'get' them," he assured her.

"And how would you know?" Jane asked.

"I mean, I— It's probably not even haunted," he said.

Jane shook her head.

"No, something definitely lives in that shack," she said. "Back during the second week of school, we all snuck out to go to Hogsmeade one night. I think it was one of the nights you were sick," Jane added upon seeing his confused expression.

"Anyway," Jane continued, "we were just kind of walking down the High street, because, well, no shops are really open at night, and we heard these awful screams coming from this place. Remember, Peter?"

"Yeah," Peter said, still trembling. "It was terrifying."

"So, it has definitely got something wrong about it," Jane said. "And whatever it is, I don't like it. It frightens me. There's just something about it…"

Jane drifted off. And Remus stayed quiet for a long time after that. When he spoke again, it was to complain that James and Sirius should've been back by now.

"Maybe they've found a way inside," Peter said.

Remus shook his head.

"That's impossible. It's all boarded up with magic," he said, looking towards the shack.

"How do you know that?" Jane asked.

"I-I heard it from someone," he said in an unconvincing tone.

Jane didn't pry though. She was too busy worrying about those two idiots that she called her friends. Why did they always have to do things like this? Things that could get them into trouble was one thing, but things that could get them hurt was something else entirely.

"Come on," Remus said.

"Have you gone mad? I'm not going near that place," Peter said.

"I'm not saying anything's happened to them. I'm just saying that if, by some miracle, they were able to find a way in, we need to convince them to get out. That place—I don't know—It's probably not stable or something."

"Are you saying that it could collapse on them?" Jane asked in a worried tone.

"I-I don't know. Maybe. Yes. I mean, it could," Remus stuttered out.

Jane sighed. It was just like James and Sirius to go into an old, haunted, unstable shack without thinking through any of the safety precautions. Detentions were nothing, but this time they could get seriously injured, maybe even killed if they weren't careful. And of course, they never were careful.

"Oh, all right," Jane said, standing up and brushing herself off.

She followed Remus to the shack. Peter followed behind them, jumping at everything. He was only following them because he didn't want to be left all alone.

Jane had sworn that she'd never go near this place, but the idea of something bad happening to one of her friends was way more terrifying than a dumb shack. So, she walked all the way up to the rundown house, calling for James and Sirius to come back.

As soon as Jane rounded the back of the house, something jumped out at her. On instinct, Jane screamed as loud as she could and kicked her attacker. She backed away a few paces before she realised that she had kicked Sirius. And in a place that would cause him immense pain.

Jane clasped her hands over her face as Sirius fell to the ground, clutching his groin area. James ran over to help him up.

"Oh my—Sirius, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Jane said.

"Merlin's pants!" he said. "What the bloody hell did you do that for?"

"You jumped out at me! I didn't have time to think! You shouldn't have tried to scare me!" Jane said.

Sirius slowly stood up.

"Well, I guess you can say goodbye to all your future children after that kick, aye mate?" James said jokingly.

Jane scoffed.

"Oh please, he wasn't having children anyway. There's no one alive daft enough to shag him," Jane said.

"Hey! I'll have you know that half the girls at Hogwarts find me very charming," Sirius said, regaining his composure. "And Remus, I swear to Merlin, if you don't stop laughing, I'm going to make you regret it."

Remus, who had been on the verge of laughter ever since he saw Sirius on the ground, just smiled and shook his head.

"You guys are idiots," he said before leading them back to the village.